I've been lurking on this board for a few years, but have finally decided to join and make it official. My personal interests leading me here revolve around Mesoamerican based new age frauds. You know, the Carlos Castaneda wannabes, the "Tetzkatlipoka tradition" people, the 2012 shenanigan, inadvertently Eurocentric Aztlan group pseudoreligious teachings, etc. People don't seem to realize that Indios of various groups are alive in Mexico, but it tends to be the upper class who wants to reclaim their "Aztec heritage". Heck, this is the reason why the Mexican government promotes people like Miktlan Ehekateotl Kwauhtlinxan while refusing to return Tlaloc (the Coatlinchan Monolith) to Coatlinchan.
I tend to be brash and straightforward, because, frankly, I don't put up with crap. I'm not a liberal or an apologist, but prefer to see myself as someone who believes in common human decency mixed with a strong dose of reality, which includes realizing that not everyone is a "good" person. I believe that education is the best answer to many of the world's problems, including keeping new age frauds out of the pocket books of people.
On a personal note, I'm a recently graduated and practicing chemist, though I also majored in anthropology and hope to pursue a graduate degree in Late Postclassic Mesoamerican fertility iconography and the modern persistence of these ideas and images. I'm also the current caretaker of the Aztec Gateway website since my friend Yehecatl handed it over to me for personal reasons. You can hate me now because we call ourselves "reocnstructionists", but we've been working on a better term since we don't claim to be reenacting the past, rather bringing forward another modern version of a surviving tradition sans as much Christian influence as possible.
I look forward to discussing with you all!
-Shock
